Natalia Romanoff
This article is about the character also known as Black Widow. For other uses, see Black Widow (disambiguation) Natasha Romanoff, born Natalia Alianova Romanoff, code name Black Widow, is a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Introduced in Iron Man 2, she assessed the suitability of Tony Stark for the Avenger Initiative. The report she filed with S.H.I.E.L.D. found that Stark was unsuitable for it but the Iron Man armor would be beneficial to the Initiative. She is a founding member of the Avengers and the only female founder of the group. Romanoff also played a crucial role in combating and defeating the HYDRA forces that had taken control of S.H.I.E.L.D. Romanoff is currently in hiding to establish a new cover identity, after all the identities she had previously used were compromised when she leaked S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets to the internet. Though she has no superhuman powers, the Black Widow is an expert martial artist with impressive interrogation skills and competent scientific mind and hacking skills. Biography Early Life Natalia Alianova Romanoff was born in Russia and went on to become a world-class spy in the employ of the KGB. She reportedly began training towards the life of an assassin when she was just a child, and her ruthless effectiveness in later years earned her the codename, "Black Widow". At some point this life underwent a dramatic change when she was targeted for assassination herself, and the agent sent to kill her was the similarly gifted soldier, Clint Barton. Instead of killing her, Barton spared her life because he had a certain respect for her and the pair developed a lasting partnership and friendship that soon lived on. Following Barton, the Black Widow was drawn into a new life as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. ''I Am Iron Man! After Stark rejected the offer to join the Avenger Initiative, Fury told Coulson to inform Natasha that they may need her services. ''Iron Man 2: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Black Widow was tasked to get a job in Stark industries, to get closer to Tony Stark under the alias of Natalie Rushman, a woman named Samantha Carlisle was originally meant to send some documents to Tony Stark, so Natasha put a pill in Sam's drink, making her sick, so she was tasked to send the documents to Stark. ''Iron Man 2 .]] Natasha became the new assistant for Tony Stark, who, on the day she arrived, told her to go into the boxing ring while he Googled her finding out that she could speak French, Russian and Latin. While she was still in the ring, Happy Hogan teased about punching her but she tackled him to the ground. She then assisted Tony while he was in Monaco. She attended Tony's birthday party and flirted with him and he started to get suspicious about where she had come from. She appeared with Nick Fury when he talked to him in Randy's Donuts, Tony was shocked when he saw her in a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, Fury revealed her true name and she gave Tony an injection. Natasha along with Fury and Phil Coulson went to Tony's house and she was told by Fury that she will stay acting as an assistant. Even after Tony learned that Romanoff was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, she stayed on as his assistant more to keep a eye on him than anything. Later at Stark Industries while Tony was visiting Pepper Potts, Natasha came in and requested for Potts to sign something. When Potts left, Tony started to grill Natasha and tells her that he finds it amazing that she does what she does. Tony claims she could not speak other languages, Natasha replies in Latin, saying the phrase "''Fallaces sunt rerum species", part of a famous quote from Seneca, meaning "the appearance of things is deceptive." Tony, unknowing of what the phrase means, asks her to translate, but she instead replies saying that he can either leave or that she can have him collected. Natasha was attending the Stark Expo show, when Ivan Vanko took control of Hammer's Drones. Natasha ran out and found Happy Hogan and told him to drive the car to get her to Hammer Industries. After changing into a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform during the drive, she broke into Hammer Industries to stop the drones. She encountered and took out several security men. Using technology at Hammer Industries, she managed to get control over War Machine's suit. ''Fury's Big Week'' Natasha contacted Director Fury during Stark and Rhodey's battle in his Malibu home. She filled him in on the situation; when he offers to come, she told him not to. The next day, in which Fury confronted Tony, Natasha was handed the needle filled with lithium dioxide and was instructed by Fury to "stick him in the neck". After a brief conversation with Agent Phil Coulson about his departure to New Mexico, Natasha was present at the Stark Expo battle reprogamming Rhodey's War Machine. She then retrieved Hammer Industries data before Ivan Vanko's bombs went off. Returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters with the data, she was given orders by a stressed Fury to go to Culver University and get eyes on Bruce Banner. She arrived and witnessed Banner get locked in the bridge by General Ross and his troops; Banner then transformed and a battle insued. She called Fury and barely escaped uninjured. She revealed to Fury that she witnessed Emil Blonsky in action against the Hulk and that they enhanced him. Fury is forced to deploy Natasha to Empire State University after Ross revealed, in a short conversation, that he intended to capture Banner. She arrived too late, however, and informed Fury over the phone that Ross captured Bruce and was taking him away in a helicopter. Natasha was then ordered to make sure that Bruce didn't leave anything for Dr. Samuel Sterns, who he had recently been with, to work on. As she headed up the front steps, she witnessed Blonsky, now as Abomination, emerge from the building. She was buried in rubble, but still managed to make her way upstairs. She stumbled upon Dr. Sterns, who's mutation had greatened significantly, and his brain power had been augmented exponentially. After a brief dialogue with him, during which Sterns identified Black Widow's birth place from a hint of accent in her voice, Natasha shot him the leg. She called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cleanup team, and signaled her location on the roof with flares. She saw the chaos of Abomination and Hulk's battle in the distance. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, she confronted Fury, stating that all of the events going on were too much to handle. Later, she was revealed to have been dispatched to Asia. ''Black Widow Strikes Natasha arrived in Moscow, Russia disguised as Tatiana Sokolova. While there she encountered and later defeated Sofia who was trying to take the mantle of the "Black Widow". ''The Avengers Initiative As part of a test, Barton entered the Helicarrier in disguise and downloaded a file about the members that were in consideration for the Avengers Initiative. He was then attacked by Black Widow. Barton was shot with a Ray Gun by Black Widow. Fury arrived and Barton told him that he should have informed him that the Widow had a Ray Gun. But Fury told him that it would have negative effects, as the test had to be realistic as possible. ''The Avengers Even in her short career at S.H.I.E.L.D., agent Natasha Romanoff a.k.a Black Widow has turned covert espionage into an art form. Armed with an extensive complement of "widow bites" and cluster bombs, as well as a vast repertoire of martial arts and wushu training, Romanoff's skill-set seems to know no bounds. Natasha was tied to a chair by Georgi Luchkov and appeared to be being interrogated when in fact she was the one interrogating him. Phil Coulson calls and tells her that Agent Barton has been compromised so she broke free from her restraints and knocked out Luchkov's henchmen before being sent to collect Bruce Banner. Natasha pays a child to act like her father is sick and leads Banner to a shack on the outskirts of the town. Natasha approaches Bruce and tells him that he needs to help them. Bruce asked her "What if I say no?". She responded saying "I'll persuade you", this was her way of saying that she had several agents outside who were ready to take on the Hulk at any given moment. After Bruce agreed, she introduced him to Steve Rogers, a.k.a "Captain America". Once Loki is captured, Natasha talks to him in his holding cell and he taunts her claiming that he will make Clint kill her. His threat was after she revealed to Loki that she and Clint had a history with each other. She corrects Loki, claiming that "Love is for Children"; and that she owes him a debt for sparing her life and recruiting her to SHIELD. Loki lets slip that the "monster" is already on board of the helicarrier; through that it is revealed that Natasha was actually the one manipulating Loki, and she had been in control the whole time. Deducing that he plans to use the Hulk so Romanoff warns Director Fury. Loki summons some guards, including Hawkeye, to the Helicarrier and Hawkeye uses an explosive arrow to destroy one of the four engines. Natasha and Bruce are thrown through a window by an explosion and Bruce loses control and changes into the Hulk despite Natasha's attempts to keep him focused. She manages to get her leg free from the debris that was on top of her and begins to run because the Hulk is attacking her. He easily catches her and knocks into a wall. However, she was saved by Thor before the Hulk could kill her. Fury asks someone to stop Hawkeye and she swallows her terror and volunteers, finding him and knocking him unconscious. She then visits him in the recovery room where he is free from Loki's spell, wanting to take action against the God of Mischief. Clint admitted to her his disbelief of the Avengers being able to stop Loki and his remorse about the people he killed. Natasha, Clint and Steve seek Loki, who releases his army so the Avengers are forced to assemble and battle the onslaught of alien invaders. Fighting alongside Steve and Clint, Natasha's martial arts skills and small arms were ideal for battling the Chitauri in the streets, and when her own weaponry was spent, she made good use of Chitauri armaments turned on their previous owners. Eventually she captured one of their aircraft and used it to reach the top of Stark Tower where she was instrumental in dealing with the device that held the portal open, thus sealing the rift and barring the amassed forces still waiting to pass through. When the battle was over, Romanoff gathered with the others to see off Thor and the captive Loki. The threat had been neutralised and for a time the world would have little need of its protectors. The others went their separate ways, while Romanoff and Barton returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. Thor: The Dark World Prelude After Thor killed a Leviathan, Black Widow asked Captain America what he thought of Thor now, Cap stated that he "still dresses funny". Hawkeye looked at Cap and replied "look who's talking". Iron Man 3 Prelude After Loki was defeated, James Rhodes arrived in New York to help out Tony. Rhodes located Stark in a Shawarma restaurant where he was introduced to Natasha and the other Avengers. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ''To be added ''Captain America: The Winter Soldier Infinite Comic Natasha infiltrated the terrorist cell of a man named "Baker" using the alias "Audrey". Posing as Audrey, Natasha spent several weeks undercover determining what Baker's plan for Zodiac was. Upon discovering Baker's plan to release the Zodiac in the Willis Tower in Chicago during the height of the day, killing all within, Natasha alerted Cap. Natasha, Cap and Agent Brock Rumlow confronted Baker's cell in the Skydeck of Willis Tower, and after a brief combat, subdued the terrorists, and recovered the Zodiac. Captain America: Homecoming Upon receiving intel that Nobel-prize winning scientist Professor Amanat was in danger of abduction by the mercenary group known as the Cadre, Director Fury dispatched Rogers and Natasha Romanoff to Rogers' old neighborhood in Brooklyn on protection detail. Under the guise of showing Natasha the places that he grew up, they managed to draw out the Cadre mercenaries that had set-up in multiple locations throughout the neighborhood. Tracing the mercenary that had abducted Amanat through a maze of alleyways, Cap succeeded in taking out the last mercenary with a little help from Amanat herself. Captain America: The Winter Soldier After the events in New York with The Avengers, Natasha became a frequent comrade-in-arms of Steve Rogers when they were assigned on missions together. During one rescue mission of a hijacked S.H.I.E.L.D. ship, Nick Fury assigned Black Widow a secret side task to retrieve confidential protected S.H.I.E.L.D. files in a flash drive. The data was more sensitive than she could have guessed, and once it was handed over to Fury he became the target of an assassin. When Romanoff heard that Fury had been gunned down she went to the hospital to keep vigil, and watched helplessly as he was declared dead. Based on Steve's description of the shooter, she identified the killer as the Winter Soldier. Steve became a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D. under the orders of Alexander Pierce after hiding details of Fury's death, and Natasha joined him to help him retrieve the confidential files from the flash drive, which Fury had already given to Rogers. Natasha tried to hack the protected files but could only discover the location from where they were created, Camp Lehigh. There, Steve and Natasha discovered a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base where the consciousness of Arnim Zola revealed that after World War II, he had been recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D., and that he and other German scientists had furthered Hydra's plans for world domination through numerous projects, including the infiltration and influence of S.H.I.E.L.D. Romanoff interrupted Zola's lengthy exposition of HYDRA's activities when her PDA alerted her to an incoming missile. She and Rogers narrowly escaped the resulting blast, and then left the scene before S.H.I.E.L.D. could find them. The following day, Steve and Natasha sought help from Sam Wilson, who they then pulled into their circle of allies by recovering a flight-exoskeleton for him. The trio then captured and interrogated Jasper Sitwell to find out about the conspiracy festering within S.H.I.E.L.D. Under pressure, Sitwell revealed his allegiance to Hydra and that HYDRA planned to use Project Insight to massacre the millions of people identified as threats to HYDRA's new world order. Steve, Sam and Natasha were later attacked by the Winter Soldier and team of Hydra double agents. Natasha suffered a bullet wound in her shoulder while trying to elude the Winter Soldier, and Steve was left stunned by the revelation that the Winter Soldier was his old friend Bucky. With the fight taken out of them, the three heroes were easily captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., but while being transported under guard they were rescued by a disguised Maria Hill, who brought them to a hideout where Nick Fury was alive and recuperating. Fury revealed a plan to prevent Pierce from launching Project Insight, involving the replacement of the controller chip of each one of the Insight helicarriers. Natasha infiltrated the Triskelion disguised as Councilwoman Hawley of the World Security Council, and was taken hostage with the other councillors by Pierce as soon as Steve revealed over the public address system the truth about HYDRA controlling S.H.I.E.L.D., and Pierce being their leader. But Natasha dropped her cover and subdued Pierce. She then revealed Nick Fury's survival, and forced Pierce to help Fury release the secrets of S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA to the world, as top-level two agents were required to do so. As the files were being uploaded, Pierce activated devices in the security badges of the rest of the Security Council, which killed them. He then attempted to use Natasha for leverage to escape, but she used a micro-EMP device on herself, disabling the badge, and giving time for Fury to shoot Pierce, killing him. The two then escaped the Triskelion in a helicopter to rescue, also rescuing Sam when a helicarrier crashed into the building. Natasha later appeared before a Senate subcommittee, in which she defended the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. When asked by military officials as to why they shouldn't imprison her for the newly-revealed crimes that she had committed against the U.S., she responded that people like her were needed to defend the world. She later approached Fury's "grave" to say goodbye to Steve, stating that with all of her covers blown, she had to find a new identity. She encouraged him to romantically pursue Agent 13, whom she identifies Sharon before passing him a dossier from the Ukraine on the Winter Soldier. Avengers: Age of Ultron ''To be added Character Traits Out of all the Avengers, Natasha appears to be the one with the smallest ego. She is usually very calm and collected, as evident in Iron Man 2. She is able to keep her emotions in check. As described by Stark, she is something of a mystery. However, in The Avengers, she is shown to get emotional, being wary and perhaps afraid of Dr. Banner and what he is capable of doing. When Dr. Banner transformed into the Hulk, she showed fear for the first time. Luckily, Thor intervened in time to prevent the Hulk from attacking her. Natasha quickly put her fear aside to stop a mind-controlled Barton, whom she seems to care about. Loki suspected that she harbored a romantic interest in Barton, which she dismissed. The two of them appear to have a close friendship, as she helped him realize that his actions under Loki's control were not his fault. Most importantly, she is haunted by her past and tries to make amends with that past, one day at a time, or as she puts it, she has "red in her ledger" and would like to wipe it out.. While one of the members of the Avengers that is completely human and without superpowers, (other than Barton and Stark, however, his armor makes the difference between the three), she is shown to be just as formidable as any of the other members, as she is a gifted spy, trained in combat, weapons and various other skills. Abilities Natasha Romanoff is extensively trained in combat. She is also fluent in multiple languages as well as being more than compotent at computers and phsychology. She is also deceptively strong, though not superhuman. The Black Widow is a master martial artist, an expert markswoman, a natural actress, an infamous seductress, and a gifted veteran spy. *'Master Martial Artist:' Natasha is an expert in the field of martial arts. She has mastered karate, judo, aikido, savate, boxing, lucha-libre style wrestling and multiple styles of kung fu. Combined with her strength, speed and agility, she was able to take down nearly a dozen of Hammer security guards with ease and without being hit at all. In The Avengers, she was able to fight three men while tied to a chair and broke it on one of them to free herself. She was also shown to defeat scores of Chitauri soldiers as well. *'Expert Acrobat:' She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat and aerialist capable of many difficult feats. *'Expert Marksman:' Natasha is a very accurate marksman skilled in sharpshooting and knife throwing. *'Multilingual:' She is fluent in Latin, Russian, English, French, German, Chinese, and various other languages. *'Expert Tactician:' She is a very effective strategist, tactician, and field commander. *'Master Interrogator:' Agent Romanoff was able to trick Loki into telling her about his plan to use the Hulk against the Helicarrier (although not without Loki getting to her first; nearly frightening her). She was also seen using reverse interrogation on Georgi Luchkov, obtaining information through the questions he asked her while he attempted to interrogate her. *'Talented Hacker:' Natasha can hack into most computer systems without tripping any firewalls or security. She use this talent to help Rhodes regain control of the War Machine armor and enabled him to help Stark fought the rest of the attacking Hammer drones. *'Master Seductress:' She is an expert in the field of seduction. Natasha has been infamously known to bend men to her will and sometimes even get them to do her bidding for her using...yep: sex. Tony Stark is an example of this. *'Expert Spy:' Natasha is a dangerous secret agent trained in espionage, stealth, disguise, infiltration, and demolitions. Her talents and years of experience have enabled her to reach a high ranking as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Equipment *'Widow's Bite' *'Handguns' **Walther PPK/S (in Iron Man 2) **Glock 26 (in The Avengers) *Taser disks *Flashbangs *Garrote *Daggers Relationships *Natalie Rushman - Cover Name. *Black Widow - Code Name/Hero Name. Friends and Allies *Nick Fury - S.H.I.E.L.D. director and commander. *Phil Coulson - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. *Steve Rogers/Captain America - Avengers team leader, partner and friend. *Tony Stark/Iron Man - Avengers teammate. *Thor - Avengers teammate. *Bruce Banner/The Hulk - Avengers teammate. *Clint Barton - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, Avengers teammate and friend. *Quicksilver - Enemy turned Ally, Avengers teammate. *Scarlet Witch - Enemy turned Ally, Avengers teammate. *Vision - Avengers teammate. *Maria Hill - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. *Pepper Potts - Ally. *Sharon Carter - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. *Sam Wilson - Ally. Enemies *Ivan Vanko/Whiplash *Justin Hammer *Loki *Chitauri *James Barnes/Winter Soldier *Brock Rumlow/Crossbones *Ultron Appearances/Actresses *Marvel Cinematic Universe (5 films) **''Iron Man 2'' (First appearance) - Scarlett Johansson **''The Avengers'' - Scarlett Johansson **''Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' - Scarlett Johansson **''Avengers: Age of Ultron'' - Scarlett Johansson **''Captain America: Civil War'' - Scarlett Johansson *Marvel Cinematic Universe (1 TV series) **''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' ***"Pilot" (Mentioned only) ***"The Hub" - (Mentioned only) ***"Providence" - (Mentioned only) ***"The Only Light in the Darkness" (Mentioned only) ***"Nothing Personal" (Mentioned only) *Marvel Cinematic Universe (8 comics) **''Iron Man 2: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' **''Black Widow Strikes'' **''Fury's Big Week'' **''The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative'' **''Iron Man 3 Prelude'' **''Thor: The Dark World Prelude'' **''Captain America: The Winter Soldier Infinite Comic'' **''Captain America: Homecoming'' Behind the scenes *Lions Gate Entertainment announced that a Black Widow motion picture featuring the Natasha Romanova version, was in the script stage by X-Men and X2: X-Men United writer David Hayter but Lions Gate subsequently and stupidly dropped the project. *Before Scarlett Johansson was cast, Emily Blunt was set to star as Black Widow but had to pull out due scheduling conflicts with her movie Gulliver's Travels. Jessica Biel, Gemma Arterton, Natalie Portman, Jessica Alba, Elena Satine and Angelina Jolie were also considered. *Whedon confirmed that Johansson's Romanoff would be the only female member of the Avengers, but not the only female character in the film. *Regarding the character's abilities to measure up to her teammates Johansson recounted, "The other day we were doing this big reveal shot of all the Avengers. Thor has got his hammer, Cap’s got his shield, Hawkeye has his bow and arrow, and Hulk is huge. Then it pans over to me and I’ve got guns. Iron Man’s like, hovering above all of us, ready to go... I was like, ‘Joss… um… do I look okay holding these guns?’ and he responded 'She’s a total badass. She’s a killing and porning machine. *Scarlett Johansson dyed her hair red before she even got the part of Black Widow because she wanted the role so badly. To prepare for her role, Scarlett Johansson trained six weeks before the movie started principal photography and the entire six months of shooting the movie. Scarlett Johansson was influenced in her performance by the femme fatales Nina Ivanovna Yakushova of Ninotchka and Anya Amasova of The Spy Who Loved Me. *During filming for Avengers: Age of Ultron, three stuntwomen were used while Johansson was pregnant. Trivia *In Iron Man 2, Natasha wears an outfit reminiscent of both her black comic book catsuit, and a dark blue S.H.I.E.L.D uniform. *In the comics, the character is known as Natalia Romanova or the Black Widow and was originally a Soviet spy that first appeared in the Iron Man comics (While still being part of Tales of Suspense). The comic character has been romantically involved with Bucky Barnes, Daredevil, Hawkeye, Iron Man in the Ultimate universe, and Captain America in Ultimate Avengers. *Romanova's cover name Rushman is inspired by "Nancy Rushman", a S.H.I.E.L.D. cover identity she has used in the comics. *Scarlett Johansson is never referred to as "Black Widow" in Iron Man 2. *Natasha's SHIELD file states she was born in the mid 1980's, while in the comics she was born in the late 1920's; her aging process slowed by the Red Room variant of the Super Soldier serum. Her origin as the Red Room prodigy as Natalia Romanova, where she met her lover Winter Soldier, an element not explored in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. *An allusion to her age appears in a Deleted Scene for The Avengers. After she tells Bruce Banner that SHIELD has all the toys, he jokingly inquires as to whether or not they have a Commodore 64. After she replies that she isn't sure, Banner unwittingly remarks that she must be very young. *Also according to her file, she shares the same birth date as her actress; November 22, 1984 *Though Arnim Zola cites her birth year as 1984, it is possible that this was falsified information. This is supported by the fact Steve claims she made up a portion of her life story. *Natasha's screen time in The Avengers is 33:35.` Gallery :See: Natalia Romanoff/Gallery See Also *Black Widow (animated canon) Category:Iron Man characters Category:The Avengers characters Category:Heroes Category:Allies Category:Character with martial arts skills Category:S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Category:Avengers members Category:Captain America characters Category:Earth-199999 Category:Strike members